I had the pleasure of testing out discoDSP's Discovery vst the other day and must say, I was well impressed. I thought synth 1 was the be all and end all of nord lead style synths, but this thing just blew it away in my opinion. Not sure how well it would stack up in an A/B comparison with the real thing, but its a damn sight closer than any other softsynth I've tried as yet. It just has that hard ear splitting FM sound that you get from the Nord. Even has a funky gui that looks just like the NL rack3. Anyone else tried this synth yet?


Looks like software is getting phatter and phatter each day. I wonder how long it will be before the two are indistinguishable.

___________________

yes it is.

Is some ways there is no catching up to do. Take the Virus and Novation K-Station for example. Both are VA synths, meaning that the sound is produced by embedded software on chip inside the machine. In both these case the manufacturers have simply ported the embedded code so that it can run as a VST/AU soft-synth and so we have the V-Station and Virus Powercore. The same would no doubt apply to all other similarly architected synths.

Its catching up but its got a long way to go, you can make basses that sound like hardware etc, but Leads -- no way, listen to any released track and that lead cannot and wasnt made by a soft synth

quote:

Originally posted by Axolotyl I had the pleasure of testing out discoDSP's Discovery vst the other day and must say, I was well impressed. I thought synth 1 was the be all and end all of nord lead style synths, but this thing just blew it away in my opinion. Not sure how well it would stack up in an A/B comparison with the real thing, but its a damn sight closer than any other softsynth I've tried as yet. It just has that hard ear splitting FM sound that you get from the Nord. Even has a funky gui that looks just like the NL rack3. Anyone else tried this synth yet? Looks like software is getting phatter and phatter each day. I wonder how long it will be before the two are indistinguishable.

well, nord lead and virus are both softsynths too, just that software is run on dsps instead on x86 family cpus. so, of course it is only a matter of time when vst instruments will sound the same. now they cannot sound the same because no one can afford to make a synth which will use up up to 40% of an athlon64 or equivalent p4. one of the best examples for this is powercore virus - it sounds just like the real thing because it uses the dsp power on the powercore card, very similar to real virus. btw i use discovery quite a lot, and yes, it kicks ass pretty much.

doesn't G&D use software exclusively?


edit:

I mean, software sounds totally different imo and has a unique thing to it.

___________________

Last edited by *InVeRs3* on Jul-15-2005 at 16:06

quote:

Originally posted by Project 7 Its catching up but its got a long way to go, you can make basses that sound like hardware etc, but Leads -- no way, listen to any released track and that lead cannot and wasnt made by a soft synth

There are plenty of released tracks which were made only with software.

___________________

"I expect to pass through life but once. If therefore, there be any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do to any fellow being, let me do it now, and not defer or neglect it, as I shall not pass this way again."

You really have to be paying attention to spot software from hardware in tracks. Anyway, I tried the Discovery versus my Nord Lead 2 and it indeed sounds close, but there is something about the Nord that in every comparo sound file I recorded, I could spot which was which. How I did it was I had a MIDI track and exported the Discovery and wrote it in the details, then did the same with the Nord Lead 2. I arranged the files in afolder like crazy and start clicking files randomly and writing in a text file my guess. I was always right. Like I said, they sound similar, but the Nord Lead 2 has something in its sound that gives it away...I cannot explain it but Nord Lead owners know what I am talking about.

quote:

Originally posted by Project 7 Its catching up but its got a long way to go, you can make basses that sound like hardware etc, but Leads -- no way, listen to any released track and that lead cannot and wasnt made by a soft synth

you'd be suprised

i know of one well known recent producer who has no hardware at all

___________________
frase.org.uk - music & stuff
myspace

quote:

Originally posted by Axolotyl Even has a funky gui that looks just like the NL rack3. Anyone else tried this synth yet? Looks like software is getting phatter and phatter each day. I wonder how long it will be before the two are indistinguishable.

Thought it looks and sounds like NL2? Anyways the sound is very similar(sampled waveforms from the original perhaps?), but the filters dont quite cut it. They come close, but not enough. And the plugin doesnt have a unison(which is very important in some keysounds ive done with NL1). The sound has differences in grittiness too, but this is more likely due to the difference between NL1 and NL2. I have NL1 so comparing it to a NL2-clone wont work so great(tho they should be pretty much the same sounding) It beats most crappy softsynths tho 100-0. And bear in mind the original awesome sounding NL1 is from 1995.. so catching up eh?

___________________
-
Matti Kotala
-mk-
www.mkdr.net

quote:

Originally posted by -mk- Thought it looks and sounds like NL2? Anyways the sound is very similar(sampled waveforms from the original perhaps?), but the filters dont quite cut it. They come close, but not enough. And the plugin doesnt have a unison(which is very important in some keysounds ive done with NL1). The sound has differences in grittiness too, but this is more likely due to the difference between NL1 and NL2. I have NL1 so comparing it to a NL2-clone wont work so great(tho they should be pretty much the same sounding) It beats most crappy softsynths tho 100-0. And bear in mind the original awesome sounding NL1 is from 1995.. so catching up eh?

Yeah your right, it looks more like the NL2.. doesnt have those funky leds that the NL3 has I've been using Discovery a fair bit this past week and your right... it doesn't come close to the real thing. It has a similar sound, but the filters just dont hold it together aswell as the hardware. I dont have a nord of my own, so I cant do an a/b comparison but the FM just doesnt sound as hard from what I remember.

I would still have to say its the best nord emulator VST so far... Plus its red

___________________

quote:

Originally posted by Axolotyl Plus its red

Ye that always helps


Just got reminded today why i love that sexy red beats so much. I did an square/saw/FM/unison lead with it fckin brilliant. Bites the hell out of other synths. Its so nasty sounding. GRAuuuu :P

___________________
-
Matti Kotala
-mk-
www.mkdr.net